S&W Manufacturing News

I Gave Employees the Latest Gadgets for Communication

When I took over the company from my father, S&W Manufacturing was a foundering job shop that was heading into bankruptcy. The company's land and building were worth more than the business that my dad had spent half his adult life building.

The reason for this dismal situation was that despite many years of profitability and success, my father had failed to invest in marketing and tools to enable the 15 or so employees to reach their maximum potential.

So when I took over, we cranked up the sales effort and were able to win enough contracts to put us back into profitability. We invested the extra revenue in the latest machines and tools.

Today, we have the absolute latest in equipment so that we can crank out all kinds of special-order products for businesses that produce everything from furniture and appliances to aerospace and automotive parts.

Not wanting to make the same mistake my dad had made, I created S&W's first-ever marketing program.

Also, I became a firm believer in allowing my employees to have the latest gadgets that would allow them to reach out, communicate and make everything happen faster in order to meet the rapid fire demand of our customers. We had e-mail, cell phones, pagers--whatever they needed to make things happen, fast.

E-mail fast became the main mode of communication between employees and customers. Sometimes people sitting a few feet apart from each other were using only e-mail to communicate. Sometimes the writing was misinterpreted, creating hard feelings. One fellow wrote e-mails in all caps. Everyone thought he was yelling at them.

We used to have weekly meetings to clear the air, but it didn't seem necessary because of all the fancy gadgets.

Then one day an employee entered my office in tears. Apparently, she and another employee were having a very public e-mail spat that the whole company could access. It was embarrassing and, frankly I thought, childish.

So I put a stop to in-house e-mails. I firmly believe in developing interpersonal relationships. I know all my customers and would fly to their side in a moment's notice if they needed me. My customers are my friends.

My employees, too, are like one big family to me. I wanted them to see each other eyeball to eyeball, not mouse to mouse. I called a meeting and said, "From now on, we are not having in-house e-mail communications. You can still e-mail outside the company to reach customers and deal with any issues you have. But when you need to talk to each other, get up from your desk and walk over to that person. Look them in the eye and work out your differences."

We started having weekly meetings again--in person, all together--to get all issues out where everyone could hear about them, ask questions and reach consensus for solutions, face to face.

At first there was grumbling about no in-house e-mails. But within a few weeks, S&W's 45 employees seemed happier and were getting more done.

Our customers have noticed that our employees seem more upbeat and have terrific interpersonal skills. While I don't think customers ever realized there were any internal communications issues, they do notice that we pick up the telephone to call as much as we e-mail them.

The ironic thing is S&W Manufacturing has greatly improved in-house communications by eliminating the high-tech gadgets and going back to the old-fashioned way of communicating.

With customers, while e-mail is a great tool, personal meetings and good, old-fashioned telephone conversations keep relationships strong.

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